When you are selling your service on the web what you are really selling is yourself. So when a potential client’s first encounter with you is your website it should give them an idea of what you are all about. I have long believed that for a site to be friendly and approchable it needs to be about you not some corporate image or the editorial “we”. Most people what to know who you are, what you believe in, and most importantly what you can do for them.
I just recently found C.J. Hayden’s website and she talks about this very issue, not just in designing your website, but in all of your marketing. It seems that all marketing can be very impersonal and the more that you can make it personal, especially when it’s your service that you are marketing, the better off that you will be.
Open Source software is taking the world by storm and changing everyone’s business model to one degree or another why not use the same model for hardware as well.
I think many manufacturers are missing the boat on this issue and the one who steps up now can stake their claim as the industry leader
Being an Open source proponent myself, I hadn’t really considered using the same model for hardware applications until I read “Vendors hindering open-source hardware development”. Now my mind is spinning just thinking about all of the possibilities.
Taking proprietary approach too far is limiting the industry, says Neil McAllister writing for Computerworld.
CSS started out as a means to replace the font element. In the meantime, it has grown to a powerful layout language. Even though it is not fully supported by all of the browsers, I believe it will be one day.
As with HTML, a working group exists for CSS who concerns itself with development of the standard. This is being done in accordance with W3C rules.
Here is another example of a good CSS reference site you add to your bookmarks.
Here?s something for some fun on a Friday. (Not responsible if you get caught playing at work)
Linux and open source software lag behind the proprietary market in the number and quality of available video games, especially in the realm of first-person shooters (FPS), a genre dominated by the likes of Doom, Quake, Unreal, Half-Life, and Halo. Here, Linux is an afterthought, if not ignored completely. Tremulous, a mixture of FPS and RTS (real-time strategy) written by Tim Angus, is an exception to that rule. Tremulous also runs on Windows.
Summary
Tremulous is a free, open source game that blends a team based FPS with elements of an RTS. Players can choose from 2 unique races, aliens and humans. Players on both teams are able to build working structures in-game like an RTS. These structures provide many functions, the most important being spawning. The designated builders must ensure there are spawn structures or other players will not be able to rejoin the game after death. Other structures provide automated base defense (to some degree), healing functions
I have and will advise my clients to think very carefully before investing in any pay-per-click advertising program. The main reason for that is click fraud.
How this works is that you bid on a “keyword” which can be one word or multi-word combinations. If you are one of the high bidders your ads are placed on websites whose content is related to your target customers. Then when someone clicks on one of your ads your account is charged accordingly. These clicks can range anywhere from a couple of cents to in the case of very competitive keywords several dollars. That money is then split between the company and the page owner. No one really knows for sure how many of these clicks were only intended to collect the commission.
While I do use them on my site (you can see the Google ads on this page) and placing the ads on your site is fine (if you don’t mind the risk of losing your visitor) I don’t advise my customers to buy into any pay-per-click campaign unless they are willing to track (or pay someone to track) every click, visitor, and sale. You need to know exactly what your return on your investment (ROI) is. This can be a daunting task, sometimes more than a full time job.
Here are a couple of great articles on the subject.
Bruce Schneier writes
Google’s $6 billion-a-year advertising business is at risk because it can’t be sure that anyone is looking at its ads. The problem is called click fraud, and it comes in two basic flavors.
Another good article by Adam McFarland from the web designers point of view
Are Made for AdSense Sites Ruining Search Results?
There are way too many tools here to mention them all, but this SEO Tools page has links to the best SEO Tools on the internet and these tools will help you to optimize your website and move your search engine position higher.
Tools include:
- Alexa Tools
- Backlink Tools
- Code Validation
- Keyword Suggestion Tools
- Search Engine Ranking Tools
- Exchange Link SEO Tools
No Strategy. No Success is an article by Frederick Townes who is the owner of W3 EDGE Web Design. I found this is a good read for beginners, as well as experienced designers. He covers many points including:
- Objectives
- Market Analytics
- Technology
- Presentation Layer
- Promotion
- Optimization
Of course it’s a lot to cover in one short article and some things are over simplified, but I found many goods clear and concise points. I also think Frederick has taken the time to have his points laid out in order of importance.
I got a call from a new friend that I met at a PAPEN meeting a couple of weeks ago. He mentioned to me that he thought that I used Photoshop because he had seen a Photoshop Tips and Tricks post on my blog.
I explained to him that I don’t use Photoshop that I use GIMP, but that most all of these Photoshop tricks can translate to GIMP.
Here is a GIMP tutorial for everyone from the GUG (GIMP User Group)
Learn how to do aqua/crystal/glassy orbs, layered masks, Script-fu, water, fire, lightning, blending, rust, metal, fog and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you’re a very new GIMP user, there’s even a tutorial on how to draw a box using paths or how about one on doing Rounded corners?
A good article on the Information Week site talks about how to recognize when someone has introduced something with malware into your system. All business owners and mangers should read this. The article talks about things like:
- How to prepare for an attack
- How to recognize that an attack is happening
- What to do once it happens
There is also a PDF version to download and print to post somewhere at your business.
Here?s something for some fun on a Friday. (Not responsible if you get caught playing at work)
Remember the plain Periodic Table hanging on the wall of your science class. This one is amazingly detailed and very cool to play with, it’s all done with Flash. Displays everything from boiling points to electron orbitals. Completely customizable coloring. Each element links to wikipedia.
